After weeks of speculation and dozens of players departing teams in the UK’s Elite League for other teams across the globe, the league has now announced that they will suspend the 2020/2021 season.
The announcement was made on Tuesday morning (15th September) amid the Coronavirus outbreak which has seen leagues such as the Premier League and English Football League make changes to finish their seasons by playing behind closed doors, or even cancelling the season all together.
Now with no firm announcement from the UK Government as to when fans will be allowed to attend indoor sporting events such as Ice Hockey games, the league has taken the unprecedented decision to suspend the campaign before a puck has even been struck in anger.
Speaking on behalf of the 10 teams which make up the UK’s Elite League, Chairman Tony Smith said: “We’ve been very open that we need to have fans back in our arenas for us to begin playing again. We operate around 75% to 100% capacity at our venues and this is the level of crowds we would need in order to go ahead at any point, which isn’t a realistic option right now.”
“Government compliance along with the safety of our players, officials, staff and fans is paramount to this decision.”
It had been hoped that the league would be able to get underway on 5th December, but the league appear to have put a stop to that and haven’t announced when they expect to get back onto the ice with the prospect of the 2020/2021 season being lost all together a very real possibility.
“If government guidance and support were to change, some teams may be ready to revise their plans to return to play and would need a minimum of 8 weeks to prepare.” Tony Smith continued.
“We are looking into the possibility of some form of top level ice hockey in the UK potentially taking place in early 2021. This could start in late January or early February and go through into late June, but may not include all teams and again, this is dependent on crowds being allowed back inside venues.”
“We continue to speak with the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Meida and Sport and devolved administrations about their plans for the return of fans to arenas that would enable this to happen, but having a full EIHL season starting in 2020 with ten teams is now beyond us, unfortunately.”
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